Tag Archives: iOS 7

Apple released iOS 7.1.1 yesterday, the latest update to the iPad and iPhone operating system. This update to iOS brings bug fixes and some security enhancements. It also has improvements to the Touch ID feature for iPhone – which is expected to come to this year’s iPad models.

Another interesting addition in this update, spotted by MacRumors, is a new label on apps with In-App purchases – in the Top Charts listings pages. It’s a fairly tiny bit of text just underneath the Free button in the apps listing.

Given all the controversy around ‘Freemium’ games with sometimes very large In-App purchases (I’ve seen up to $99) and horror stories of kids running up bills into the thousands of dollars, any extra labeling of these apps is a good idea. I’d love to see the label text be a little larger and more prominent.

iOS 7.1.1 is available now as an over-the air update via Settings > General > Software Update.

Well here’s a lovely little iPad rumor to consider this week – iOS 7.1 is said to be set for release any day now. Here’s the reason given by John Gruber at Daring Fireball:

Apple’s first iTunes Festival in the U.S. starts a week from today at SXSW in Austin. Apple is going to stream the performances to iOS devices using an app, but I’ve heard from a little birdie that the app requires iOS 7.1 (which explains why the app isn’t out yet). That means iOS 7.1 should ship any day now.

These shows start next Tuesday, March 11, right here in Austin. So perhaps a iOS 7.1 release on Friday?

iOS 7.1 is rumored to bring fixes for some of the crashing bugs and frequent Springboard resets that have plagued iOS 7 since its release.

I don’t fully understand why the iTunes Festival app requires an iOS update, as it has always offered a live stream plus highlights videos in the past as far as I can recall – but I’ll be quite happy if this rumor proves true and the app helps to push out the iOS 7.1 release.

If you’ve been using iOS 7 for any length of time, then you’re likely aware that it’s prone to pretty frequent crashes at random times. This has been the case ever since the late developer betas and certainly since iOS 7 was released to the public.

I think it’s the most buggy release of iOS since iOS 2.0 – and I’ve definitely see plenty of the Springboard reset type soft reboots on my Retina iPad mini on a regular basis.

The good news is it looks like there may be an update on the way to at least partly address the issue, according to Mashable.

“We have a fix in an upcoming software update for a bug that can occasionally cause a home screen crash,” Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Mashable.

9to5Mac also reports that feedback from people using the latest iOS 7.1 beta indicates that it is ‘more stable and less prone to crashes’.

Last night Apple capped off a very busy day and released iOS 7.0.3 for iPad and other iOS devices.

This latest iOS update brings the new iCloud Keychain feature and better password management in Safari, along with numerous bug fixes – including some related to issues with iMessage and Siri.

An update to Settings brings more relief for those users that have been troubled by the motion effects in iOS 7, as MacStories’ Federico Viticci reports:

A subset of users asked Apple to reduce the motion of the OS as it was causing motion sickness for them; a setting that the company had included in the Settings app wasn’t enough, as it disabled the parallax effect of iOS, but not the new animations.

Apple has listened, and iOS 7.0.3 the Reduce Motion setting (available in General → Accessibility) now truly reduces animations: switching to apps and back to Home screen, unlocking the device, and moving between folders is now a cross-fade that is much faster than Apple’s animations with Reduce Motion turned off.

There are also bug fixes for some some well-known security issues and patching of vulnerable areas.

True multitasking, AirDrop, Control Center, new Notification Center, iTunes Radio – all impressive new features in iOS 7. But perhaps none of those would win a public poll for Most Popular New iOS 7 Feature.

I’d wager that this one would be at the very least a good dark horse bet:

You can now put Newsstand in a folder.

Yup, you can send Newsstand into exile with prejudice; chuck it in a folder, call it whatever you like, and never have to lay eyes on it again.

As with any built-in iOS app, you can’t delete Newstand – but at least now you can banish it to a folder, something that a whole lot of users have been wanting ever since Newsstand first appeared on iPad and iPhone home screens.

Personally, I don’t mind Newsstand too much and have a few titles I subscribe to that make it worth having around – but I know that many of you have already sent it away or will soon after you read this.

AirPlay Mirroring is one of the coolest features on iOS. As the name suggests, it allows you to mirror your iPad screen to a nearby Apple TV or a Mac – so everything done on the iPad is shown instantly on the bigger screen.

This is a superb feature for presentations, screencasts and demos, and for entertainment and gaming.

In iOS 7 the controls for AirPlay Mirroring have moved. In iOS 6 they were found on the Multitasking Bar where you switched between recently used apps. iOS 7 now uses a card style view to show running apps and switch between them – and the controls for AirPlay Mirroring are no longer shown along with those.

Here is how you turn AirPlay Mirroring on and off in iOS 7:

— Swipe up from the bottom bezel (the black area just below the iPad dock).

— This will bring up Control Center, where you have quick access to many useful controls.

Here’s another neat little feature that iOS 7 has added for those of us who use an iPad with cellular data capability. You can now see cellular data usage for all your individual apps in the Settings app.

This was possible before with a few 3rd party apps, but it’s handy to have this information available right within the Settings app.

You can find it in Settings > Cellular Data, in the new ‘Use Cellular Data For’ section. Apps are listed alphabetically an each shows its data usage in the current month. You can also use the button next to each app’s name to turn on or off its ability to make use of cellular data.

The iPad App updates for iOS 7 are still coming thick and fast – and a lot of big name and notable sort of iPad apps have released their iOS 7 updates over recent days. These include:

Facebook: is sporting a new look and feel that’s in tune with iOS 7 design themes.

Pocket: the excellent read-it-later app has refreshed its UI while keeping it elegant and clean and not going overboard with the new iOS 7 look. It has also added impressive background sync.

Evernote: the powerhouse note and ‘second brain’ app has also had a major design overhaul for iOS 7.

Byword: the superb text editor app has a UI refresh, a new iOS & enabled method of highlighting Markdown syntax, and support for AirDrop file sharing.

MLB At Bat: is now iOS 7 compatible and updated for the playoffs and postseason.

Some other notable apps for iPad with iOS 7 updates over the last several days are Launch+, Fitbit, Documents by Readdle, Drafts for iPad, AP Mobile, Khan Academy, Chrome, and many more. Oh, and my favorite iPad / Apple forum, everythingiCafe, updated their app for iOS 7 too.

I hope you all are seeing the majority of your favorite iPad apps updated for iOS 7.

One of the most popular new features in iOS 7 is automatic app updates. I know there are many iPad and iOS users who have grown to hate the little red badge on the App Store icon that reminds you of how many app updates are available and the fact that you need to go deal with that.

The new automatic app updates feature is a way to rid yourself of the chore of installing updates manually. The feature is easy to turn on or off. Here’s how:

— Go to the Settings app and tap on the iTunes & App Store section on the left sidebar.

— On the iTunes & App Store page on the right of the screen, look at the ‘Automatic Downloads’ section.

— Tap on the button alongside the ‘Updates’ entry to turn it on or off. If the button shows as green and white, it is On.

If you want to see which updates have been applied recently, for troubleshooting purposes or other reasons, you can go to the Updates section of the App Store and see a listing.

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy waving Bye Bye to the task of keeping your iPad apps up to date.